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Area 1 Structure and Progression

The screen fades in from black and the player finds themselves on a bloody gurney. The Starting Room itself is a mess, with tables and objects strewn around in a violent fashion to show that there was a scuffle or chaotic event. This room is the most recognizable to the player as they use this room to get their bearings and experiment with the controls, this comes into play later in the level. The player then heads to the door that has been irreparably damaged and cannot be walked through normal, as the player must crouch to get through it. The player approaches the door and the prompt telling the player what button to press to crouch appears, this prompt is attached to a trigger around .5m x .2m placed in front of the door. The player then crouches under the door and enters the First Hallway.

 

This hallway is heavy on atmosphere, low light, ambient noise, and plenty of blood. The player enters the First Hallway crouch, low to the ground, this allows the player to see the blood trail that leads directly to the bathroom. This draws the player right to the bathroom door halfway down the hall where the gun is located and creates an air of foreboding, there is a threat that the player will face that could cause a mess like this. The player walks to the door at the end of the blood trail and the prompt that tells the player what button to press to open the doors comes up. The player opens the door and enters the Bathroom to investigate who or what the blood belongs to.

 

The Bathroom has just enough light to show the player the body, gun, and ammo. On the players left, in the sink, is the first audio log. This audio log is oddly placed so as to inform the player that they may have to look in strange places to find other logs. It is also in the dark corner of the room so that the flashing blue light is more effective at drawing the player’s eye. The player examines the corpse and crouches down to pick up the gun and ammo, drawn to the faint pulsing glow both the gun and ammo emit. The player then exits the room and continues down the hallway.

 

The player heads down the hallway and investigates the body slumped by the corner of wall, when the player looks at this body, a spider will skitter across the floor by the opening to the Mechanical Room, this is a brief introduction to the first enemy, a tension building event, and will prepare them for the fight in the Mechanical Room. The player then enters the Mechanical Room cautiously, prepared to fight the creature that they just saw out of the corner of their eye.

 

The player enters the Mechanical Room and uses their gun or melee attack to deal with the two threats in the room and find that two of the doors are locked and one is not. The player opens the unlocked door and finds it blocked by large objects, this tells the player that they will have to find another way through.

 

The player then shoots out the glass and jumps through or goes through the vent by the entrance to the room to access the office. In the office the player picks up the dimly pulsing keycard on the desk by the window and listens to the audio log on the desk at the back of the room. The player then jumps through the window back into the the Mechanical Room to use the newly acquired keycard.

 

The key card won’t work on the middle door but it does work on the other door. The player opens the door to the electrical room and is startled by a short-circuiting computer and an attacking spider. After dispatching the spider, the player plays the audio log and interacts with the computer, it’s powered up screen and text catching the player’s attention. The player exits the Electrical Room to find that the middle door is unlocked, the change in environment draws the player to the middle door and the player enters the Second Hallway.

 

The moment that the player enters the second hallway, alarms start to blare and lights flash, disorienting the player and setting up for the first hallucination. The player goes through the hallway and opens the door at the other end, only to find that it leads back into the room that they started in. The player, in their confusion, will look back and see that there is no door behind them anymore so they go the only way available, back through the door to the First Hallway. As they approach the door to the First Hallway the screen distorts causing further confusion and disorientation. The player then exits the starting room and goes back to the First Hallway.

 

The player runs through the hallway that has changed, the screen is distorted and the objects that used to be on the floor are on the ceiling. The turn in the hallway is now blocked by a wall and the door that was locked before is now open. The player opens the door and enters the Living Quarters.

 

The small hallway is very dark, requiring the use of the gun’s flashlight to navigate, thus teaching the player how to use the flashlight. At the end of the short hallway is a locker that must be jumped over, teaching the player about the ability to jump and the approximate height you gain from it. After this the player crouches under the barricade enters the bedroom area where a bed in the room shifts and the roar of the biped can be heard. This moment startles the player, increases tension and makes them fear that something is behind them. The player can either move on or listen to another log. The player makes their way to the other end of the room, opens the door, and enters the Third Hallway.

 

This is just a transition room, the gas goes off and the player opens the door and control is taken from them as a quick cutscene plays that introduces the increased severity of the hallucinations. The player wakes up and they start the Platforming Section.

 

The first section of the platforming area has the player dodging to the left, then center, then ducking, to navigate around pipe blockades that come from the walls. After crouching under the penultimate blockade, the player jumps over a final set of pipes that are at ground-level. From here they must navigate north, through a hallway that does not have a floor. They jump across floating platforms that start to fall on contact, while avoiding twitching platforms.

 

Two adjacent moving platforms move up and down the level, leading to a set of four floating platforms before the exit to the level. The player jumps to small outcroppings on the walls to either side of them to wait for the first moving platforms. Once they jump on the platform and move forward for 2 seconds, 2 pipes come in through the east and west walls, creating a horizontal blockade. The player will be pushed off the platform unless they jump over the pipes in time, having about 5 seconds to react. At the same time, spiders jump over each of the pipes and the player has 2 seconds to shoot them both before they cause damage.

 

Taking out the spiders and jumping over the pipes, this sequence repeats itself once the player is on the second moving platform. Once complete, the player jumps to the last set of floating platforms and makes a run for the exit, a decontamination chamber that ends Level 1.

Area 2 Structure and Progression

The player fades in and finds themselves in the decontamination chamber that they ended Level 1 in with the door in front of them locked tight. The player does a quick scan of the room and finds the panel that will open the door. The player activates the panel and the door slowly opens creating tension and giving the player the time to prepare themselves for whatever lies on the other side of the massive airlock. The player enters the Genetic Experimentation Room.

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The first thing the player sees is the health pack, though the player is already at full health, so they will leave it until after an encounter. On the right side is a large window that looks into the surgery room, the player will initially bypass it, seeing that there is no entrance to other rooms inside. The door at the other end is locked, but the players see that the door to the surgery room is open, since may hold the key to progression, they head inside. Here the player can grab some ammo and observe the corpse lying on the chair, they also hear a skittering sound in the observation area and they will investigate. After taking out the 2 spiders that spawns the spotlights come on in the surgery room, capturing the players attention, they noticed the body is now gone and a key is in it's place. The player grabs the key, unlocks the door and enters the Biological Storage Facility. 

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A wall, cutting the facility into two halves, funnels the player to a set of three doors, each with a set of lights over them, but only the middle door has a working light. This draws the player to the middle door which they step through into a short hallway. At the end of the hallway is a scientist, standing with their back to the player, seeing as we have established that the only enemies are those that are mutated the player approaches the scientist, who will quickly rotate around, scream, and the player will be dragged into a white light. The player is put on the other side of the Storage Facility and see that the right door has it's light on. As they walk to the door the player passes a glass jar that breaks when they pass, startling them and spawning a spider, this increases tension and shows the player what those contain.

 

The player enters the left door and finds some ammo and a room littered with glass jars they just encountered. This sends the amount of worry and tension through the roof as the player knows they are now surrounded by spiders. The player can run through the room or try and fight off every one of the spiders that pop up, and once they get to the door they are pulled in by a white light and put down in a hallway that holds an audio log. At the end of this hallway is a door that is unlocked, but when the player gets to the door it locks itself causing the player to turn  around and try to open the door at the beginning of the hallway, once again the player is pulled into a white light. They are placed where they ended up after entering the middle hallway and the fire starts to consume the storage facility.

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Fire starts to consume the ground of the storage facility, though a box that wasn't there on the last pass through has appeared and, knowing that platforming is an important part of the game, the player uses it to jump onto the dividing wall and onto the large specimen spire in the middle of the room. From here the player climbs and jumps up the room using the spire, strategically placed boards and warehouse shelving all the way up to the catwalk the looms over the facility. The player then enters the door nearest to the spot where they dismounted the final warehouse shelf and finds the first self-destruct key. Halfway over to the door at the other end of the catwalk the player hears a loud roar and sees the shadow of a creature on the wall in front of them. The player turns around to see a bipedal spider mutant charging toward them. This will frighten the player and cause to scramble for the door while reflexively unloading every single bullet they have into the charging monster. The player closes the door on the monster or kills it, the screen fades to black and the final level loads.

Area 3 Structure and Progression

The player starts in an decontamination chamber and then opens the airlock door using a panel on the right wall. The door creaks open to create tension, give the player a chance to get their bearings, and prepare for any threat that is on the other side of the door. The player walks through the airlock door and into the Incrementing Hallway.

 

The player is used to hallways by now and they take each turn cautiously, but the hallway won’t stop turning, this confuses and disorients the player, preparing them for the next hallucination. At the end of the second time around the screen distorts, the walls become covered in blood, and piles of bodies appear in hallway, a scare that raises the tension even higher as the player walks through the piles of bodies. The player rounds the next corner and finds that the hallway finally ends, this change in environment leads them to the next door that is unlocked. The player opens the door and enters the Server Room.

 

When the player enters and picks up the keycard on the desk at the back of the room, the right-corner servers will spark, drawing the player’s eye to the vent, scaring them, and allowing two spiders spawn behind the player and surprise them. When reacting to this, the player will either scramble onto the desk or kill the spiders. Afterwards the player will notice that there is no way to open the door they entered so they must find a different way out. The player noticed the vent after the server spark and the make their way up to it by jumping on the desk and filing cabinets. The player then goes the only way they can, deeper into the vent, finding a log, and entering the Head Scientist Office.

 

The player drops down from the vent and the player grabs a self-destruct key, key card, and activates a log. The player then exits the Head Scientist Lab and enters back into the Hallway.


At the end of the Hallway is a locked door that is opened by the key card received in the Head Scientists Office, the player enters a very small space that lets them recompose and grab ammo before heading into the genetic experimentation lab. The player then enters the lab.

 

The player is greeted by a mass of spider-heads that immediately run to attack the player. The player only has one place to go, as the middle path is full of spider heads and the right path is blocked off by tables and other lab equipment. The player runs down the left path and tries the door closest to them, it is locked and cannot be unlocked, thus they try the next closest door, which is on the opposite wall, which is also locked. Finally the player goes for the last door, upon finding out that it is also locked, they turn to fight the oncoming spider-head horde finding that they have merged into one giant spider head. The player will be startled and do the one thing they can do, unload as many rounds into it as possible. Once the giant spider head is dead, the back wall door is now unlocked and they can go to the next Hall.

 

This hall is a just for transit between the last few major areas and as the player walks through they will see that the large airlock door is locked, and no key that they acquired is working on it, so they continue. The player then comes across a room with a door similar to the wreck door in the starting room, they crouch under and enter the Breaker Room.

 

The player sees three dimly pulsing objects in the room, a breaker switch, a medkit, and an ammo clip. The player collects the health and ammo and then flips the breaker switch, which causes an overload in the pipes and gas to jet out startling and hurting the player, who then runs out of the room as fast as they can to escape any more damage. The player can now enter the Security Room at the top of the stairs. If the player did not go to the Breaker Room first, they find the Security Room locked and they must go back and explore the Breaker Room.

 

Once in the Security Room the player can stock up on both health and ammo. They player also finds the final self destruct key and the console that the player can insert them. The player inserts the keys and the Main Lab below lights up slowly and dramatically, one light at a time, showing the player the rows and rows of pods and the final switch they must pull to start the countdown. The large airlock door to the Main Lab also noisily lumbers, catching the attention to the player, informing them that the door to the goal is now open. The player then head down the stairs, back down the hallway and into the Main Lab.

The player starts the long walk to end of the room to pull the self-destruct switch, this is both a tension building walk and a moment to reflect on the events of the game. The player pulls the switch and the timer starts to count down from 30. The pods break open and the player uses the surplus of ammo they found to try and fend of the horde of spider-heads and bipeds. They last for 30 seconds, the game ends and the final cutscene plays.

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